The mission of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty is to educate and mobilize faith communities to act to abolish the death penalty in the United States.

Nearly 80 percent of executions in the United States take place in the South, the former slave states. Dozens of men and women are executed each year in the South, which is truly the Death Belt of the United States.

Today diverse voices are crying out for justice and action. More and more Southerners are taking personal responsibility for states that kill their citizens in their names.

People of Faith Against the Death Penalty is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, interfaith organization whose mission is to educate and mobilize faith communities to act to abolish the death penalty in the United States. Founded in 1994 in North Carolina, PFADP focuses its programs on organizing among faith communities.

PFADP seeks to be totally inclusive - reaching out to all citizens regardless of faith, race or ethnic group, income, political affiliation, age, ability, and so on. Our members include Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and people from other faith traditions. If you are comfortable with us, we are comfortable with you!

We work every day with faith communities across the South and the nation, helping to empower people to stand and be heard for repeal and helping groups across the country to develop their capacities for organizing for repeal of the death penalty.

As Americans, we call on our country to reject the death penalty. The American death penalty system is racist, predisposed to executing the poor and destitute among us, prohibitively expensive compared to life imprisonment, and inequitable and unfair in its implementation.

As people of faith, we know that the God of all faiths calls us to something more: a high and often difficult standard of love and forgiveness and a justice that is rooted not in retribution but rather in redemption and restoration. We believe that the death penalty denies the sacredness of human life. Spiritually, the death penalty robs us all.

As we invest in vengeance in this society, we divest in compassion. As we support retribution, we neglect restorative justice. We cannot be a community of life, compassion, and unity if we choose to destroy one another. Or if we allow the state to do it for us.

PFADP is supported by our thousands of members across the United States and hundreds of congregations and faith groups. Please join us today.